Within an hour and a quarter of the time the leading vessel passed the forts, all had reached a safe point above, where they engaged in a furious fight with the Confederate flotilla, the smaller members of which were soon disabled or sunk.
[Illustration: THE "HARTFORD"-- FARRAGUT'S FLAGSHIP.] Meanwhile the ironclad _Manassas_ had been prowling at the heels of the Union squadron, but being discovered by the _Mississippi_, the steamer opened on her with so destructive a fire that the ram ran ashore and the crew scrambled over the bows and escaped.

The _Mississippi_ continued pounding her until she was completely wrecked.

The loss of the Union fleet was thirty-seven killed and one hundred and forty-seven wounded, while the Confederate land forces had twelve killed and forty wounded.
The Confederate flotilla must have lost as many men as the Unionists.
Having safely passed all obstructions, Captain Farragut steamed up to the river to New Orleans, and the city surrendered April 25, formal possession being taken on May 1.
It will be admitted that Lieutenant Dewey had received his "baptism of fire." It is the testimony of every one who saw him during the turmoil of battle that he conducted himself with the coolness and courage of a veteran.

At no time during the passage of the forts and the desperate fighting with the Confederate flotilla above did he display the first evidence of nervousness or lack of self-possession.
[Illustration: IRONCLADS ON THE MISSISSIPPI.] The next engagement in which Lieutenant Dewey took part was the attempt by Farragut to pass the battery of nineteen guns, mounted on the hundred-foot high bluff of Port Hudson, on a bend of the Mississippi, below Vicksburg.

The position was the most difficult conceivable to carry from the river, because of the plunging shots from the enormous guns on the bluff above.
Captain Farragut had no thought of reducing these batteries, which would have been impossible with a fleet double the strength of his, but he wished to get his vessels past in order to blockade the river above the bend.